Sunday, April 24, 2011

Working on CHALLENGER

(A) working on another poetry series, or;
(B) working on a bunch of poems that I may not ever present as a series, but do seem to have a common theme.

Whatever the case may be, the common motive with each poem is to CHALLENGE the gay community to better itself by undoing things that are holding us back from progressing.

If you've read this blog enough, then you know I have stated a common 3 "-isms" that are halting our progress. Those "-isms" being: ageism, racism, and sexism. And there is a poem that I have either already written, am currently working on, or plan to write that deals with these subject matters. And while these poems will challenge the gay community to better itself, they also come with the challenge of me presenting them to the intended live audience so that the right people at least hear the message. If they actually listen to the message is up to them. Either way, without coming anywhere near the intended audience, there is no point in presenting them live.

I wrote a poem addressing racism in the gay community because I have always felt that racism within the LGBT community is the BIGGEST halter of our community's progress, at least here in the U.S.A. It may be one of the other "-isms" in other countries, but racism is definitely the biggest halter of progress here in America. As if we're back in pre-Civil Rights Movement America, the racism of gay Whites heading media and entertainment outlets starting the domino effect that in turns sparks racism and separatism led by Blacks, Latinos, Asians, Middle Easterners, etc. has caused me to need to take on the challenge of presenting my poem about racism in a room very predominately white. In fact, I may find myself to be the only Black person in the room. Even better would be to have a great many of those Whites be members of gay media, entertainment, and nightlife.

I am presently working on a poem about sexism in the gay community. When I speak of sexism, I am referring to how I have so often seen gay males scoff at the sight of females in a gay bar dominated by males, just by her simply walking through the door. In fact this past week, I was at Splash Bar and discovered (at least on that night) females were NOT allowed in unless they were in the company of a male entering the bar. I admit that straight females in a bar full of gay males can be pests (I will address this matter soon in a blog entry), but this kind of rule makes our sisters in the fight for gay rights, lesbians outsiders as well. And I'm sure some lesbian bars and clubs have the same kind of rule in play towards males. For this reason, I have the challenge of my intended audience for this poem being a room full of gay males and lesbians with the desire to live in a single-gender world. A world that is unseemly because we wouldn't so much as exist without the presence of the other gender. So this poem will challenge them to challenge their issues that make them have such an unreal desire.

I intend to write a poem about ageism in the gay community. What is making me unable to start is because (1) I want to finish the poem about sexism, and (2) while I will no doubt be addressing the disregard the gay community has for its older members of all colors who brought us this far, while media outlets presently act as if the younger White members are doing all the work, I'm not sure if I want to also address ageism in regards to older guys dating much younger men and what it says about both parties. Either way, the challenge here is to have the audience filled with mostly young gay men and women to teach them to respect the older people in our community. For they are the ones who have brought us to this point where we don't have to live in silence.

With such heavy topics on the agenda, you might be surprised that I have also included one about size-queens in this group. I have always believed that size-queens (be they straight females or gay males) are their own worst enemies because of their weak-mindedness that makes them believe porn-induced fallacies. This is the one poem that can be presented anywhere gay men are. I may even present it here on this blog soon. The challenge of presenting it to a live audience is to get a room full of size-queens who are willing to confront the lessened pleasure their bodies will give over time because of their being size-queens, as well as well-endowed males who have experienced that lessened pleasure from size-queen self-abusive sex practices. This is of course another uneasy audience to wrangle.

The hard part about presenting these poems in a series is because (sadly enough) it is highly unlikely to wish for people who meet all of the criteria of what I desire in an audience for each individual poem to be in one room together. Which is why while I GREATLY appreciate Men of All Colors Together for allowing me to present my 1st poetry series, "The Industry", I can't go to them for this one. For the simple fact that their membership in no way entails my intended audience for any poem except maybe the poem taking size-queens to task. So while writing this, while I've decided that the poems will become a series, our community is not in a place of togetherness where they can be presented collectively. THAT is a challenge, hence the necessity for this series with the appropriate intended name, "LeNair Xavier:CHALLENGER".

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